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Passion for liberty seems lagging in this country and around the world

Because the Fourth of July is a time we celebrate our Founding Fathers’ belief that liberty was something worth risking their fortunes, lives and sacred honor upon, it’s a good time to consider how we’ve let much of it slip away.

Liberty is not something the world is awash in these days, or any other time, so the choices our Founders made to create the life we still lead is more of a singularity than many know and unfortunately are even taught.

The French philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau once said, “Man is born free and everywhere he is in chains.” It would be nice to think that things had significantly improved since the end of the 18th century, but the state of liberty for much of the world’s population has progressed only haltingly

Futhermore, as much as some hate to admit, much of that progress occurred with the assistance of the United States.

So it is with a heavy heart I consider the ease and willingness with which many surrender freedoms and the supreme emblem of liberty — choice — usually in the name of imagined safety or an illusion of security.

This week in Colorado, the winter surrender of some bits and pieces of human liberty by our Legislature and governor, for reasons not even as altruistic as a misplaced hope to improve public safety, was brought home.

Sporting good shops around the state packed up ammunition magazines and firearms and sent them back to manufacturers or other states for sale. Our state and people are no safer as a result, but we are a little less free.

We’ve debated the wisdom of this empty experiment but I think it’s time to acknowledge the part many of us have played in bringing this about by letting division and uncertainty choose our political leaders.

We can’t pretend that any of this firearms legislation or the war on extraction industries and jobs would’ve happened if those of us on the right side of the political spectrum had pulled together with anything like the cohesion of those on the left.

What right-thinking person can’t see that mandating 30 percent of “renewable” energy from some producers and 20 percent of others by regulatory fiat makes no sense and smacks of some joke of an economic plan from a failed Warsaw Pact nation?

This happened because many of us on the right are too eager to do something and can’t settle on candidates who might at least stop something. Ultimately, we probably should be first interested in candidates who won’t do certain things over those too eager to right all the wrongs. The first step to fixing problems is to stop creating more of them.

It was 2010 when the firearms restrictions and all of the other things actually started occurring. They started happening when the main portion of the Republican Party refused to embrace tea party and libertarian outrage.

Equal blame can be assigned to those who decided any outsider or newcomer to politics was better than any insider, whether or not the outsider was truly conservative, could win or even had a plan.

Who thinks a Gov. Scott McInnis would’ve signed this firearms legislation or green energy mandates or a host of other nonsense? No one who knows him, that’s for sure, and insider polling data tells us that he was leading John Hickenlooper up until the Republican primary. Not your choice? Even so, probably a better choice than what you received.

State Senate President John Morse, who is in the midst of a recall for his Second Amendment assault, only won his seat by 340 votes while a libertarian candidate carried over 1,300, mostly from the Republican candidate.

I don’t know if they taught the Republican Party in that area any lessons but they certainly taught the rest of the state one. I’m not saying it’s pleasant to hold your nose to vote but it’s better than having someone stick your head in a bucket after the election.

We can blame our loss of liberty on those who don’t trust us, like us or are simply afraid of the world they’ve created and seek simple answers. But too often lately, we have met the enemy and they are us.

Rick Wagner writes more on politics at his blog, The War on Wrong.

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By John Wilkenson - Thursday, July 4, 2013

I would disagree with Rick’s statement, “the main portion of the Republican Party refused to embrace tea party and libertarian outrage.” I believe the tea partiers and libertarians ARE the “main portion” of the GOP. That political struggle remains to be hashed out.
Rick appears to be flogging the familiar “lesser of two evils” dead horse. Problem is, the lesser of two evils only guarantees a more certain, if a bit slower, descent into evil.
Please notice how faux-reasonable “mainstreamers” never talk about things like the differences between commodity-based mediums of exchange and political-manipulation-based “legal tender” fiat currencies, complete with their fraudulent interest-bearing unsustainable “national” debts. Nor will they talk about the structural differences and gravitational effects between taxing productivity (aka “income”) and taxing consumption (aka “sales”). Nor will they talk seriously, when discussing taxation, about how the word “income” was specifically designed to obfuscate the freedom-v-slavery difference between the zero-sum wages-for-labor COMPENSATION and benefit-from-the-other-guys’labor PROFIT/GAIN which “legally” (and oh so cleverly) creates a prima facie unequal protection of law between the buyers of labor and the sellers of labor which can serve no compelling government interest, or even a semblance of a rational connection to any legitimate government purpose.
Of course, forget the so-called “liberal” (aka Democrat) alternative altogether. They only want to steal your money under a pretense of altruism, while pocketing a significant portion of the loot for themselves and their buddies, while simultaneously demonizing any person who dares to disagree with their economic philosophies or their coercive use-the-power-of-big-government methods.
Contrary to Rick’s simplistic and misleading contentions, it’s not about seeking “simple answers”, it’s about seeking the truth. It’s about seeking intellectual honesty, recognizing root causes, and identifying and adopting sustainable human behaviors.
I agree with Rick that “The first step to fixing problems is to stop creating more of them.” Rule #1: when you’re in a hole, stop digging.
The internet is producing citizen loggers and journalists, which radically lessens the control of money over “news”. So, lawyer Rick, what do you say we take a second step in stopping digging by abolishing the arrogant feudalism of “unauthorized practice” of law?

By John Wilkenson - Thursday, July 4, 2013

ERRATA: Obviously the word “loggers” was supposed to be “bloggers”. If that caused any confusion, I apologize. If if produced a chuckle, you’re welcome! Be happy! :-)

By Steve Phillips - Friday, July 5, 2013

Really? The GOP seems to be about the status quo if one buys into Rick’s philosophy of all decisions “democrats” make are wrong! It is the Republican way…..make money and pocket it! Had JP Morgan and Thomas Edison given in to Westinghouse and Rockefeller we may still be without electricity. For some it was certainly not the right thing to do….make electricity available to the masses cheaply.

While mass murders and the killing of school children occur across the nation many on the left and right believe we should do NOTHING! Can’t say anyone has knocked on my door to confiscate my weapons! Nobody has yet convinced me I need more than a magazine that holds more than 15 rounds. On our farm we were pretty good shots and Aubert a coyote would get three chances but rarely more. Same thing when we hunted big game.

The world is changing and will never be the same. We simply need leaders who will seek solutions to issues and make decisions. Sometimes that means taking risks and TRYING rather than choosing sides nd doing nothing.